84 BURMA
influence in Burma, the Negrais settlement no longer had the
slightest use. George Pigot had already advised London to
sanction its abandonment. His report went before the Directors
in March 1757, and they at once issued orders for complete
withdrawal from Burma. Before these arrived, however, Alaung-
paya had made a holocaust of Pegu (May 1757), and had sent
peremptory orders to Negrais for its Chief to attend on him at
Prome, while on his way back to the capital.
The Chief, Captain Thomas Newton, deemed it unwise to
go in person, and deputed Ensign Thomas Lester to go,
taking with him the best present the settlement could afford.
Lester was conducted to the Burmese flotilla, as it triumphantly
made its way upstream with the captive Court of Pegu and vast
booty. He was accorded two interviews by Alaungpaya on the
royal barge, and in his journal, which Dalrymple prints in full
in his Oriental Repertory, has left an entertaining account of his
experiences.
He had to enter the royal presence minus sword and shoes,
and to hold himself throughout in a kneeling posture. The
king, however, was in a good humour, and when the uncom-
fortable envoy sought to ease his cramped limbs by surrep-
titiously drawing a low stool towards him, his discomfort evoked
roars of laughter, and he was graciously told to sit down in the
English fashion. In accordance with his instructions Lester
asked for a treaty. To this the king rejoined that the order
inscribed on a gold plate, which he had sent to the king of
England was sufficient guarantee. After some further argument
he said in an offhand manner that if Lester insisted on a treaty,
he might have one.
Throughout the discussion he plied the perplexed, and
somewhat amused, Englishman with all manner of irrelevant
questions. He asked why the English did not tattoo their bodies
like the Burmese, and proudly exposed his own tattooed
thighs. He also enquired if the English were afraid of the French;
and when Lester proudly proclaimed that no Englishman had
ever been born who was afraid of a Frenchman, he capped the
remark by asserting that he was afraid of no one in the whole
world: even if all the powers of the world were to invade his
country, he could drive them out.